187 miles to go.

We're leaving Florida tomorrow morning, with our little Uhaul truck and my car in tow, and we'll be in California by next week.

Don't know if any of the hotels will have internet access, so I may or may not be around.

We meant to leave today, but it took so long to load the truck and we still need to clean the place.. plus we had misc. errands we'll have time to run around town now.

I'm ready for this now. :)

I think everyone I know can relate to this.

Repost of a repost, but I think something like this should get around. I got it from reebchan and I urge everyone to forward it on.

Hey everyone,

Please pay attention to this developing story about the truly devastating death of a 15 year old boy named Lawrence King. He was killed by a 14 year old classmate because of his sexual orientation, shot in the head in front of 20 other peers in broad daylight.

I'm just completely heart broken over this story. In recent weeks, the nation has seen two school shootings, NIU and now this.

Another horrible thing about this shooting is that it has received little attention outside of the immediate community in California. Lawrence King was killed on February 13th. I urge you to think hard about the kinds of media, political, and religious forces that dictate which stories get national attention. GLAAD released a press statement on this incident on the 15th, and it's now 11 days after the fact and very few people are aware of King's death. I for one just found out and I'm outraged that this hasn't been widely reported. National stories compel citizens and communities to speak out and demand change, legislation, more dialogue... something, anything. I'm appalled that this story hasn't reached people, that we haven't been moved to cry, reassess and be shocked into action.

It is imperative that we stand up against sexual discrimination, let alone racism, sexism and economic disparities, all injustice and discrimination. Only are my rights and freedoms protected when my neighbor's rights are equally respected, protected and upheld.

I've included the links to the news stories. Please please tell your friends about this story. Upload these links to your facebook, forums, whatever. Drop a line on Anderson Cooper's blog.

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-oxnard23feb23,1,1086853.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

http://www.glaad.org/media/stw_detail.php?id=4235

http://www.glaad.org/media/stw_detail.php?id=4238

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/02/13/boy.shot/index.html?iref=newssearch

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/02/14/boy.shot.ap/index.html?iref=newssearch

http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2008/feb/14/kingfamily15/

http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2008/02/25/when-does-bullying-become-a-hate-crime/

http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2008/02/25/how-to-stop-bullying-parenting/

We can not fashion ourselves as (future) leaders and turn a blind eye to injustice, institutionalized or otherwise. Thank you for your eyes and ears and hearts!

My latest FrankyxRobin fanart:


( Behind the cut... )

Alright, I've made another attempt at fanart. Despite GIMPshop giving me tons of problems today, I got it finished.

It's Franky and Robin from One Piece. Drawn by hand, colored on the computer.

( And don't worry, Mike, it's not two guys kissing this time. )

This is my first time trying to color anything with a computer program. I used GIMP, although GIMP still confuses the heck out of me.


( Renji and Ichigo from Bleach! )

EVERYBODY SHOULD GIVE THIS A SHOT! :D

summer_novel is having a NaNoWriMo in June. Basically, you try to write a 50,000 word novel in one month.

NaNoWriMo (short for National Novel Writing Month is normally in November, but this month is terrible for a lot of people due to holidays and school, so a bunch of people have decided to do NaNoWriMo in June instead. The rules will be basically the same.

Even if you DON'T finish the novel, it's totally worth a try! It may not be an award selling novel, but the point is quantity, not quality--just to say you did it.

So go join summer_novel!

NaNoWriMo is at the most inconvenient time ever, so if you want to do NaNoWriMo but not in November, join this community: summer_novel

(In case you don't know.. NaNoWriMo is national novel writing month, so a bunch of people write a novel in november. However, this is the WORST TIME EVER for most people because of school, holidays, etc. so now there is a community just in case you really want to write a novel in a month but you just can't pull off november.)

joooiiinn... joooiiiinnnn!

I am actually leaving this post public because everyone must join! (And it's not like joining now legally obligates you to do it this summer--it's just a community add!)

I'm going to go ahead and (try to) make my journal friends only. If you're on my f-list already, you're still there.

If you want me to add you, you know the drill :)